Taphophile Tragics

Yungay is in the mountains north of Huaraz, which is north of Lima in Peru. It's a place I knew nothing about but was a stop on a day trip out of Huaraz to visit a couple of lakes. Its an very moving place, and was extremely atmospheric on a grey, overcast day.

On May 31, 1970 a debris avalanche caused by the 1970 Ancash earthquake buried the whole town, killing 25,000 people. The earthquake triggered an unstable mass of glacial ice about 800 meters across at the top of Nevado Huascarán to fall. More than 50 million cubic meters of debris slid approximately 15 kilometers downhill at an angle of about 14 degrees. Speeds between 200 km/h to 400 km/h were achieved. Only 92 people survived, most of whom were in the cemetery and stadium at the time of the earthquake, as these zones were the highest in town.

 Many people now come to Yungay just to visit the Campo Santo just before the current Yungay if you come from Huaraz. This is the site of the old Yungay which has been left untouched after the disaster and is therefore a huge cemetery. You can see some leftovers of the old church and of the palm trees that used to be on the Plaza de Armas. Roses were planted at the site. The Peruvian government has forbidden excavation in the area where the old town of Yungay is buried, declaring it a national cemetery. The current town was rebuilt 1500 meters north of the destroyed city.

For more taphophilia please visit Julie's Taphophile Tragics.

Taphophile Tragics

Ninamarca is a pre-inca burial cemetery located  at 3700 metres above sea level along the road to Manu National Park (which is in the Peruvian Amazon). From memory, Ninamarca was the first stop on the 2 day bus (truck actually) tour down to the Amazon and if you ever go to Manu its well worth going down by road from Cusco and flying back. (Although I'd actually recommend going to the Bolivian Amazon, its a lot cheaper and people say just as good. But make sure you go right into the jungle - somewhere like Chalalan Eco Lodge in Madidi not the 2 day jungle trip from Rurrenabarque. Manu didn't impress me that much, although we did see a jaguar. Overall I liked Bolivia a lot more than Peru although you do have to see Machu Picchu.)

As a silent reminder the tombs, called "Chullpas", mark the pre-Inca civilization of the Lupaca people that inhabited the Andes a long time ago. A chullpa is an ancient Aymara funerary tower originally constructed for a noble person or noble family. The tallest are about 12m high. The tombs at Sillustani are most famous, but chullpas are found across the Altiplano in Peru and Bolivia. Recent research has focused on the connection between chullpas and the ritual pathways etched into the landscape around Nevado Sajama, as well as possible patterns within chullpa sites.

Corpses in each tomb were typically placed in a foetal position along with some of their belongings, including clothing and common equipment. The construction of the chullpa varied with ethnic group: in general, those of the north Altiplano are circular and constructed with stone, while those of the south are rectangular and constructed with adobe. Some are unadorned, while others have intricate carvings. At Sillustani, many of the chullpas have lizards, which were considered a symbol of life because they could regenerate their tails, carved into the stone. In virtually all cases, the only opening to the tomb faces the rising Sun in the east. It is possible that chullpas were also used by the Incafollowing their conquest of the Aymara. Very similar stone constructions on Easter Island known as tupa have sometimes been suspected to be closely related to chullpas.

For more taphophilia please visit Julie's Taphophile Tragics.



Truck

Jaguar

Taphophile Tragics

Chauchilla cemetery is located 30 km south of the Peruvian town of Nazca and is an interesting side trip when visiting the Nazca Lines.

For many years the cemetery was looted by treasure hunters, who destroyed the place completely, taking away all the treasures the mummies kept in their tombs for centuries. Grave robbers just left behind the corpses, which can be seen today all over the ground. In addition to skulls and bones, visitors also can see several tombs centuries’ old, as well as long human hairs, ceramic fragments and others remains scattered on the dessert surface. It is the only archaeological site in Peru, in which ancient mummies are seen in their original graves, along with ancient artifacts, dating back to 1000 AD.

The cemetery was discovered in the 1920s, but had not been used since the 9th century AD. The cemetery includes many important burials over a period of 600 to 700 years. The start of the interments was in about 200 AD. It is important as a source of archaeology to Nazca culture. The cemetery has been extensively plundered by huaqueros who have left human bones and pottery scattered around the area. Similar local cemeteries have been damaged to a greater extent. The site has been protected by Peruvian law since 1997 and tourists pay to take the two hour tour of this ancient necropolis. The site is by the Poroma riverbed and can be accessed off a dirt track from the Panamerican Highway. In 1997, the majority of the scattered bones and plundered pottery were restored to the tombs.

The bodies are so remarkably preserved due mainly to the dry climate in the Peruvian Desert but the funeral rites were also a contributing factor. The bodies were clothed in embroidered cotton and then painted with a resin and kept in purposely built tombs made from mud bricks. The resin is thought to have kept out insects and slowed bacteria trying to feed on the bodies.

The nearby site of Estaquería may provide clues to the remarkable preservation of the numerous bodies in these cemeteries. At that site, Archeologists found wooden pillars initially thought to have been used for astronomical sightings. However, it is now believed that the posts were used to dry bodies in a mummification process. This may account for the high degree of preservation seen in thousand-year-old bodies which still have hair and the remains of soft tissue, such as skin.

For more taphophilia please visit Julie's Taphophile Tragics.